


A fool such as I

by ZeldaElmo



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27724256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeldaElmo/pseuds/ZeldaElmo
Summary: One summer and a promise is enough to make Link search for a girl since his childhood. When he finally finds her, nothing is as he expected it to be.
Relationships: Karane/Pipit (Legend of Zelda), Link & Pipit (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

He knew he was a fool when his eyes scanned the passing sidewalk for a woman with blonde hair from the co-driver’s seat of Pipit’s car. 

He knew he was a fool when they entered the charity gala, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking for a pair of blue eyes. 

He knew he was a fool when a bell-like laugh made him turn around to find out if it was her. 

It was not. 

It was never her. 

“Link”, Pipit said and nudged him in the side, “you are doing it again. Get yourself something to drink and enjoy the evening, for Hylia’s sake! I didn’t drag you here to look for your imaginary girlfriend!” 

Sighing in defeat, Link grabbed a glass from the tray of one of the waiters, not caring at all what fancy drink he might have gotten himself. Old habits die hard – the point wasn’t that Link didn’t know Pipit was right. His mind was completely clear that looking for her was like looking for a needle in a haystack. His heart, however, was not. Every time he convinced himself to give up, every time he tried to move on, his pulse thrummed against that faded scar on his palm, and he did it again. Like a fool. 

He was eight when he had met her. 

It was the last summer in which his mother had been still alive. She had been suffering from a mysterious lung disease the doctors couldn’t explain and couldn’t heal. They had sent the whole family to Skyloft, a famous climatic spa, in a last, desperate attempt to save her life. His parents hadn’t told him how severe her condition was, perhaps to spare him or perhaps to spare themselves from the truth. They just spoke about a long vacation with him, an opportunity for him to meet new friends and to stray over the little island on his own, and he had loved the idea immediately. 

The girl arrived three days after him, her cheeks lacking color, her hair coiffed in two neat braids, and her proper cotton dress dancing around her knees. She was without her parents, just with her nanny – a stern-looking woman named Impa. He asked her in the following days, why her parents didn’t accompany her, but she only shrugged and said, they were extremely busy and their jobs couldn’t afford a summer break. To him, it didn’t matter anyway, because sneaking her out was much easier this way – Impa never caught them. 

General weakness and susceptibility to illness the physician had attested her and therefore she had been sent to a cur. Link couldn’t detect anything ‘ill’ on her. Her face lit up every time she saw him in the eating room and after she winked at him over the huge bowl of pumpkin soup, he followed her in a safe distance to her room on his tiptoes. Impa, whose room was on the opposite, frightened him, so he didn’t dare to knock in case she would hear him. Instead, he bolted out of the back door and threw little pebbles on her window to get her attention. She opened the window with a wide smile, and he knew immediately that he had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. 

The days flew by after that. They met at the goddess statue whenever she had free time between her treatments, and she sneaked out every evening to sit with him at the little pond. Her cheeks began to grow rosier from day to day and soon her blue eyes sparkled in the summer sun. She hadn’t been ill – she had been lonely. He taught her to catch bugs and butterflies with a butterfly net, and she taught him how they were named correctly. They read stories from the books of the little library, she more often than him because she was already a fluent reader while he was a beginner. Later in the summer, he even showed her how to swim and when she was too frustrated with her lack of stamina, they ended up in a giant water fight until their giggles made their faces and their stomachs hurt. 

They raced over the island together, always hand in hand, stealing apples at the market and hiding sky stag beetles under seat cushions to watch the poor owner of the cushion being pinched from their hiding place. 

‘Oh, will you look at these cuties!’, the adults exclaimed when they saw them, or, ‘Ah, to be young and in love again!’ and they both blushed in the warm summer sun. One afternoon, after they got a large piece of pumpkin pie from one of the farmers for helping to harvest the earlier pumpkins, she even kissed him. ‘You have pumpkin on your lips, Link”, she whispered, and then she pressed her lips to his and he was sure that he would burst into tiny pieces any moment out of sheer happiness. 

Like every summer, this summer too, had to end. She sneaked out of her room for the last time to meet him at their favorite place. They sat closer together as usual, both searching for comfort in the other, instinctively unwilling to separate from each other. Their hearts heavy, not many words were spoken, at least for eight-year-old standards. When the light of the sun turned slowly in a glowing shade of orange, she took his hand and turned his palm upward, stroking a line over it with her index finger. “Do you have your carving knife with you?”, she spoke under her breath, “I want to take an oath.” 

He had and so he traced the stinging, bloody cut in his palm when he watched her part with Impa the following morning, swearing to himself that he would do anything he could to keep his part of the promise. They would see each other again, no matter what. 

“Earth at Link, earth at Link, we need you down here!” Pipit waved a piece of paper in front of his face. He had been busy filling out the symbolic check for their donation and was obviously expecting his input. Link blinked at him. 

“How much do we usually give? 3000 rupees?”, he asked, trying to cover his slip into the daydream before his friend would shoot him another remark. Fortunately, Pipit was used to his aversion to numbers in general and didn’t grow suspicious. Pipit was the book-keeper and planer of their little security firm, while Link stuck to the operating tasks like installing an alarm device or overlooking a festivity in addition to the regular stuff of another rich family. His friend nodded in agreement and tapped the pen at his lips. 

“Well, write 3500. I’ll cover the rest.” 

Pipit blew a whistle. “What’s up, Link? Feeling generous tonight?” 

“It’s for an orphanage this year, Pipit”, he sighed. “There are too many kids who don’t have the same luck I had back then.” 

Life didn’t give him much opportunity to think of his promise at first. His mother died only weeks after their return from Skyloft and his father followed her half a year later. A broken heart, the doctor said with thin lips, when he squeezed his shoulder. He ended up in an orphanage for a few months but was lucky enough to find a family who was willing to adopt him. It was very unusual that a child of his age found a family at all. His adoptive parents said that they loved his messy hair and his honest smile from the very first second, and no matter how ridiculous that sounded to him, he was immensely thankful. Of course, it took some time to grow to love each other, but they managed somehow, and he didn’t feel so lost anymore – at least regarding his family. A year after he had left Skyloft, his life had changed dramatically, but he hadn’t forgotten her at all. Thinking of her smile warmed him inside when the grief shook him to the core and dreaming of her hand in his anchored him when he was on the verge of drifting off. 

His new family knew nothing about her and although they shared a robust trust after a while, he was hesitant to share this treasured piece of his old life with them. Instead, he started secretly to look for her whenever they were in new places. Stood on staircases to get a better look over a crowd. Glanced at all the other tables when they were eating in a restaurant. Stood near the door of a bus to observe if she might be one of the people who hopped on or off the vehicle. 

She was never among them. 

As a teenager, he gathered his courage and made a serious attempt to find her. The administration of the health resort in Skyloft was his first shot. The files of the patients were only stored for five years, and they wouldn’t give him further information anyway unless he was related to her. He scrolled through the homepage of the staff next and contacted the few faces he recognized, stumbling through his lines on the phone. Nobody remembered a blonde girl with her name. The last hint to her was Impa. He tried to find her instead, hoping an adult would leave more traces behind than a girl would, but the internet was dead silent about a nanny named Impa. 

Pipit coughed in his fist beside him and nodded in the direction of a brunette a few steps in front of them. “Babe alert!” 

“You are _married_ , Pipit.” Link rolled his eyes at his friend. “Karane won’t be lucky over the fact that you are pining after other women.” 

“I’m talking about you, you moron. Or are you still dating Peatrice?” 

Link groaned and waved his hands. “Don’t get me started on that girl. She was so clingy, horrible.” 

He had tried to like her, really. She had begged him for a date, and he had given in. They had done all this dating stuff, watching films in the cinema, dining in a restaurant, even holding hands on a walk in the park. It had always been the same, after two hours more or less, he hadn’t been able to stand her anymore. The mindless chitchat, the exaggerated admiration for him, the false lashes, everything about her had put him on edge. Like a clockwork, his scar had begun to itch, and he had fled from her presence. 

“She wasn’t her.” Pipit narrowed his eyes at him. “That’s why. Because you are still chasing rainbows. Link, man up and move on!” 

“She _was_ clin-” Link stopped. Looked again. Took a few steps forward. 

“Link?”, he heard Pipit asking somewhere behind him, but he was already on his way. 

Could it be? His pace quickened when the people in front of him revealed a glimpse of blonde hair once again. The beat of his heart drummed through his veins, all the way down to his fingertips and his toes, too loud, too fast, and he tried assertively to push it back to his rib cage. 

He had been wrong before. He was most likely wrong again, the people and the yards between them made it difficult to be sure. Her calf-length evening dress was pink, yes, but who knew if it was still her favorite color? When she turned and his desperate eyes slid over the curve of her nose, her lashes, her powdered cheeks, a stubborn thing called hope expended in this chest. The bright, powerful hope like the sun after a summer storm, not the simmering, obstinately hope like a smoldering fire which had accompanied him for so long now. 

She was talking to someone, an elegant gentleman with long white hair, and her face lit up just in time when he was near enough to confirm that her eyes were blue. And then she smiled, a polite, practiced smile only, not even reaching her eyes, but it was proof enough to let his heart skip for far too long as it should be medically explainable. _He had found her._ Hylia above, after all these years, he had truly, finally found her! 

Tiny, shaky breaths left him, in and out, which did nothing to calm his nerves, and he took her in again, just to be sure. She looked different, of course, but her eyes had still the slightest trance of sadness they had when he had seen her for the first time. Her features had grown out of the roundness of a child and her cheeks were rouged to hide the lack of color again. It had to be her – his heart beat nothing but her name through his veins. He had nearly caught up to her now and raising his trembling hand, he called: “Zelda!” 

Her head snapped up and his chest expanded nearly painfully from joy – _it was her._ It was her! But, before their eyes could meet, a security guard in a black suit tapped her shoulder and led her away. No! Someone on the stage announced the princess, but he didn’t pay anything around him mind, nearly batted the unpleasant noise away with his hands. Setting his shoulders once more and squeezing through the people, he tried to follow the way she had left. He would _not_ lose her again, now that he had finally found her. Never again! 

The stage and the backstage area were closed off with thick red ropes, a bodyguard with a stern face on each side of the stage, who already eyed him when he gave the rope a frustrated slap. He couldn’t look for her here. Fretfully, he turned around only to realize that he was trapped. Every single attendant of the charity Gala had gathered around the stage and it was pointless to try to get through these people, let alone find her again. 

Rolling his eyes, he braced himself for the next minutes of what would probably be a boring charity speech from the princess while he was dying to be on his way to find Zelda once again. He had never been particularly interested in the royal family – he wasn’t even sure if he would recognize one of them beside the King on the street. The King was the figurehead of the parliamentary monarchy and gained the main interest of the journalists and the people, while the rest of the royal family lived a relatively secluded life. Every now and then one of the members would participate in a charity event much like today. Sure, there was some kind of gossip press, too, but Link had always believed himself having more important things to do than following ‘reports’ of people he would never see in real life anyway. In the past, he had watched the New Year's speech of the King on television every year with his adoptive family ,and he still did sometimes now he lived alone to keep the tradition up. Therefore, in all honesty, his curiosity about seeing the Princess wasn’t as great as it seemed to be the case with the people around him, but now that he was standing in the first row, he might as well take a look at her. 

The moment he turned around was the moment he realized he hadn’t been only a fool. 

He had been the greatest fool of all. 

Zelda. 

_Zelda was the Princess of Hyrule._

His heart dropped in his stomach, no even to the floor. Suddenly, everything made sense. Impa hadn’t been a stern nanny; she had been a _bodyguard_. Her parents hadn’t been able to accompany her because they were _the King and the Queen_. Of course, she had been pale and lonely and well educated, because she had spent so much time on becoming a _perfect princess_ as a child. Nobody remembered a blonde girl because they all only recalled the one summer _the Princess_ was in Skyloft. He had never seen her on the bus because she had her _own_ _chauffeur_. 

His knees nearly gave out under him, the edge of his vision blurring, when he tried to proceed with the new information. Zelda was the Princess. That changed _everything_. Or did it change nothing at all? 

How was he supposed to think straight with that soundscape here? He quashed the urge to block his ears from the horrible sappy violin music, his eyes returning to her instinctively, searching hers in vain. She was so sweet and beautiful and familiar; he couldn’t tear his gaze away. Oh, how he had missed her! So, what if she was the Princess? He wouldn’t let something like that get in their way. A promise was a promise was a promise. He just had to talk to her somehow when she left the stage – then they would pick up their friendship. Perhaps, if they still clicked like all these years ago, he even dared to hope for more. 

The piece of music the fiddlers were playing reached an even more sappy height and a guy with an odd, red pompadour he hadn’t noticed before stepped up to Zelda. He nestled with something in his pocket before he dropped down to one knee. Link’s eyes widened in horror, his body frozen in place. No, stop it! Not now, that he had finally found her! An icy fist grabbed his heart and refused to let go of him. That had to be a cruel joke of destiny. 

One long, wonderful moment she said nothing, and he dared to hope that – yes, what? That she looked over, realized her undying love for him, so they could ride in the sunset on his non-existing horse? He fled when she nodded and the idiot raised again, not hesitating to kiss her. 

The people in front of him parted barely, and he stumbled, tripped until he found himself breaking down on the grated steps of the emergency exit. The cold of the autumn evening crawled under his skin or perhaps it was the cold sting of realization, too. If he had found her ten minutes earlier, a week earlier, a year earlier, he might have stood a chance. Now, every moment he had looked for her had been in vain, her fiancé didn’t look at all like the type who would tolerate a rival, even if they would just be friends. 

What a fool he had been! He pressed his palms to his eyes, casting the world out. Whom was he kidding, she was the Princess. Princesses didn’t stick with orphaned country-boys running a little two-person-operation, which made barely enough to donate a little sum every year. Princesses married rich company heirs, fancy musicians, or whatever this guy was. 

He wasn’t sure how long he sat with his face buried in his hands, hot tears dwelling at the corner of his eyes, unwilling to shed, when he heard the metallic click of the door. It could have been minutes. Or hours – and now Pipit had finally found him. Maybe it was time to go home anyway for him. 

A delicate hand stroked his back once, twice, before it withdrew. “A break-up?”, a soft voice asked and when he raised his head, the tears finally fell. Rainbows. He had been chasing rainbows – she didn’t even recognize him when he was directly in front of her. 

It took him two attempts to get the words through the stinging lump in his throat. “Kind of”, he finally choked out, torturing himself with looking at her face from so close. 

She smiled that polite, meaningless smile, saying: “You’ll find someone else, eventually.” 

“I guess I have to”, he whispered and tore his gaze away, his heart shattering into a million pieces. 

The silence hung between them like the moon between the stars, and he waited and hoped and hated himself for it. Finally, she sighed and rubbed her arms. 

“I’m sure it’s a beautiful night somewhere, for someone.” 

He didn’t dare to look in her eyes again when he unwound his white-blue shawl and placed it on her shoulders. Denied himself to let his fingertips linger. To enclose her in his arms to shield her from the cold. From the world that forced her to paint her pale cheeks with rouge. 

“Thank you”, she breathed, quiet, earnest. 

He looked at the moon again, taking his time to breathe in and breathe out; failing to prepare himself for a goodbye he had dreamed as a beginning. A goodbye, he had never meant to say. 

“Congratulations on your engagement.” 

She looked at the rock on her finger, fidgeting the underside of the ring with her thumb. “Ah, yes, that. Thank you.” 

Despite himself, he took her hands in his and pressed a kiss on her knuckles, his fingers brushing her scar and hers brushing his for a terrible, perfect moment. 

“Goodnight, Zelda.” 

She really should look happier, but it wasn’t his concern anymore. 

Perhaps it had never been. 


	2. Chapter 2

The cursed drawer of her desk got stuck when she shoved the fabric inside and tried to push it close in time. 

“Princess Zelda of Hyrule!”, a piercing voice shattered from the walls, when the door to her office flew open just in the very same moment the drawer finally gave in. Zelda slowly stood up from her office chair and smoothed her pink blazer. Raised her chin. 

“How can I help you, Rupin?” 

“How can I help you, how can I help you”, her PR-manager sing-sang and performed a strange mix between a bow and a dance, before he slammed a newspaper on her desk and spat, his fists at his side: “Tell me, what’s going on, that can you!” 

The newspaper loomed on her desk, but she refused to take a closer look. For now. Rupin wouldn’t give up anyway but whatever it was, she had not the energy to talk about Groose, and a wedding that would never happen. A PR-manager rushing in her office shortly after dawn was not on her plan for today – her life had turned upside down yesterday, was it too much to ask for time to think? She set her jaw and rolled her shoulders, trying to get rid of the tension from sitting at the desk all night. For Rupin, it was too much apparently. If he wasn’t the best PR-manager in whole Hyrule, she would have long shown him the door. In fact, the whole nightmare of yesterday's events started with _his_ call. 

Her father’s condition hadn’t allowed him to participate in the charity event, so she had taken up his duty like so often these days. She had tried to shove the concern for his well being aside, had squared her shoulders, and had put on her princess smile when her phone rang. 

“Zelda, Groose informed us that he has planned a surprise for this evening. Whatever it is, follow through! With this nasty incident with your uncle last weekend, your father’s unstable health, and the rumors about the divorce of your aunt, we need some good pictures, ok? Good press, happy people, you know the rules. Smile, smile, smile!” Although she had a funny feeling the whole evening, she made conversation and a good face as promised. 

Then it all happened so fast. One moment, she talked with the new director of the biology course of studies, Professor Owlan, and in the next moment, she was called to the stage. Groose awaited her with a bouquet of yellow roses in his hands, two musicians with violins at his side, and a calculating spark in his eyes. 

She tried to deny what he was up to doing until the very last moment. Six months! They had been dating for six months barely, and things between them were already tiresome. Her muscles turned to marble, and she knew her smile was more of a grimace than anything else. Perhaps he had just written some kind of poem and would auction it with her signature for the orphanage, something fitting for a charity Gala. He bent his knee and she stopped breathing. Oh gods, no. Whatever it is, follow through, echoed in her mind. But she couldn’t… even a completely inadequate proposal?! She knew she was taking too much time to answer when one of the musicians politely cleared his throat. 

A public rejection wasn’t an alternative, was it? Groose slipped the inelegant ring on her finger, she covered her mouth to hide her gagging with her other hand and the crowd exploded in cheers. But when Groose rose to kiss her, her eyes were only on the back of the one guy who rushed towards the exit. Whatever it was that had sent him flying, at this moment, she wished nothing more than to take his place and flee, too. 

How many smiles had she forced today already? It didn’t matter – crying and screaming wouldn’t bring her out here. The damage was done anyway; she would have to clear it up another day. For now, she just needed air to breathe. She smiled and stayed and smiled as long as it was necessary to convince everybody that everything was fine. Nothing was fine, absolutely nothing. Groose had already begun to drink shots at the bar with his boot licking ‘friends’ and she finally slipped away to escape to the exit as well. She should never have dated him in the first place and Hylia above, now they were engaged. Why, Groose? At least Rupin got his stupid pictures, she gritted her teeth. 

The evening was cold, completely lacking the warmth of the lovely afternoon, she had spent with her father in the hospital park, but maybe it was good to get a clear head again. She couldn’t remember when being the Princess had sucked so hard the last time. On the steps sat the guy she had seen from the stage, and she sat down beside him, tried to share their misery for a moment without giving too much away. 

The feeling of familiarity danced around in her mind, twirling, bouncing like a wizzrobe, but she saw so many faces in her routine as a princess that she shoved it aside as she had done with so many things today. Enveloping her in his shawl, the handsome stranger warmed not only her shivering body but her heart, too. He looked so broken, so desperate, but still, he saw, and he cared, and she couldn’t help but call the person who broke his heart a fool. If only the people around her could mimic a little bit of his kindness, a little bit of his attentiveness! 

A smile tucked on her lips, as he left. Nobody had given her a hand kiss in ages and a gentle, respectful one like this maybe never. Just for a moment, she wasn’t a Princess sitting on an emergency staircase with an engagement she didn’t want, but she dreamed of centuries where he would have been a chivalrous knight, kissing her hand and sneaking in her bed-chamber at night. Ok, that was perhaps a bit over the top, she chuckled to herself, standing up reluctantly. She should go back, or Impa would send a search party after her. Or worse – Groose would remember that he had asked her to marry him. 

The scarf flowed around her shoulders, complimenting her dress quite nicely, actually and surely it smelled nice, too, with a bearer this handsome… She snuggled her nose in the fabric and froze. 

This smell, something like wood, like green, like dancing in the sun – she had smelled it before. Her eyes flew open, and she tripped in the direction of the door. This smell belonged to a boy. A boy, who must be a man now, a boy she had long given up to find. She burst through the door, caring not in the slightest how wild she must look. 

_“Link!”_

Rupin still paced up and forth in front of her. “So, this is what you call good press, yes?” 

Zelda quashed her eye roll, he had gotten a royal engagement, so what if she made a face in a few photos? They would have to tell the press anyway that she would _not_ marry Groose, and right now, she didn’t care in the slightest, how Rupin would turn that into a reliable story. 

“So, when did you plan to tell me that you have two strings on your bow? I mean, I know you don’t like me, I get that. But I can’t do this job if you are hiding stuff from…” 

Zelda frowned. Hiding? She wasn’t hiding stuff. Ok, she was hiding Link’s shawl in her desk and maybe she was hiding the guest list of yesterday evening there, too. Perhaps she had spent the whole night scanning the list for Link’s name and sniffing the shawl, tracing her scar with the smooth fabric, pondering over the question of what to do now. 

“…did you know about that, Impa?” 

Zelda startled and blinked at her head of security. “Impa! You can’t sneak in here like that!” 

Impa raised one brow at her, then two. “Zelda? I’m here like three minutes or something?” 

No. That… oh, goddess, she was a mess. 

Impa took a long look at the newspaper and shoved it back to her. “First, I think, Zelda should shed light on this matter and no one else. And second, Zelda’s love life is the least of the problems here. The press at this event was limited to a few journalists. The area was shut off. Somebody must have let the paparazzo in on purpose. That means we are looking for a mole, Rupin. We are lucky enough that we are living in peaceful times where a paparazzo is a greater threat than a potential assassin.” 

Assassin? Paparazzi? Zelda slowly grabbed the paper. 

“What are we talking about? I thought you were unhappy with some pictures of this hilarious engagement.” 

“Well, there is no _hilarious_ engagement any longer.” 

“Wait, what?” 

Her eyes flew over the headline, the pictures. 

‘Princess cheats on her fiancé only minutes after proposal’ and a picture of Groose, kneeling in front of her while she covered her mouth, a timestamp saying ‘22:14’ over the corner of the picture. Another set of pictures followed under the bend, with the caption ‘Princess Zelda and her beau’, and Zelda sank on her chair with a gasp. She and Link, sitting side by side looking at the sky, her hand on his back, Link leaning in to arrange his shawl around her shoulders, Link, kissing her hand – every picture adorned with a time stamp. 

“That’s not what it looks like, I swear! He... he was just being a gentleman because I was cold.” Oh, goddess, so much for keeping Link a secret until she knew what to do. 

Rupin had resumed his pacing and tapped a pen against his mouth. 

“So, we have a paparazzo smuggled in by a mole and an engagement which is broken up the next day because of the pictures of said paparazzo. It must be someone who knew about the proposal.” 

“Well, it wasn’t me”, Zelda deadpanned. “We talked about _breaking up_ last week.” 

For a long moment, Rupin stood frozen in place and nobody said a word. 

“Groose”, breathed Impa. “He proposed to be the good guy and made sure you would be responsible for the break-up. Is there another reason for a horrible proposal like that when your relationship is already on the rocks?” 

Rupin nodded slowly along with her words. “Well, that explains a lot. He hired our handsome ‘gentleman’ here as a decoy, and he got his pictures.” He made a face at her. “Sorry to disillusion you, Zelda, chivalry is dead.” 

Zelda sank back in her chair. Numb. 

_No_. Link would never... But why had he been there? He had never contacted her, no letter, no call, only silence for years. Why yesterday? That couldn’t be coincident. He was not on the guest list… 

It became difficult to breathe with the pressure of her revelation on her chest, and she grabbed the armrest of her chair so tight that her knuckles went white. 

What a fool she had been! Of course, he knew how naïve she was and it was a walk in the park to woo her a little until she tapped in Groose’s trap. She snorted in disbelief of her simple-heartedness – she had fallen for him even before she had realized that it was him. Oh, goddesses, and she had spent the whole night dreaming of their summer, cuddling with his scarf and making plans to finally find him – after she solved the problem with Groose, naturally. 

Impa raised her hand in slow motion to her ear, pressed her finger on her headset, and gestured with her other hand as if to indicate ‘wait’. 

“Yes, yes, he is here. I’ll tell him. Yes, thank you.” She turned towards them again and narrowed her eyes at the PR-manager. “Rupin, did you mute your phone?” 

“Well, of course, I muted my phone!” Rupin threw his hands in the air dramatically. “If you only knew which uproar these pictures caused!” 

“Yes, yes, we are all going to die, I know.” She pointed her finger at him and added: “You might find it interesting that Groose is going to give a presser in ten minutes.” 

Rupin shrieked, turned towards Zelda, and bowed. “I deeply apologize for suspecting you of cheating your fiancé, Princess, and I’m very sorry about the situation at hand. I will try my very best to solve everything to your satisfaction, your Highness.” 

Impa closed the door after him, her hand resting on the door leaf, and she let out a heavy sigh. “This guy. One day he will drive me insane.” 

Zelda blinked owlishly at her. “There is no presser, right?” 

Impa pushed another chair in front of hers and sat down with her elbows resting on her knees. “Of course not, my dear. And now you are going to tell me what happened yesterday.” 

Zelda embraced herself and rocked back and forth in little movements of her upper body. 

“Well, you said it yourself. Groose kidded me and I ran right into it because I’m a stupid, naïve fool.” Groose was an actor and a PR-pro, she wasn’t overly surprised that he used a dirty trick to end their relationship without looking bad. It stung a little, but in the end, she was relieved that the engagement problem solved itself. 

“I’m not talking about Groose. He was no match for you anyway. I’m talking about Link.” Her gaze was soft and the tenderness of her voice stood in sharp contrast to the stab his name caused in Zelda’s chest. Damn it, his betrayal shouldn’t affect her like that – they had known each other one summer long, and they had been kids! 

“So, what happened? Did you talk?” 

“I didn’t recognize him at first”, she whispered. “He had been crying, I thought about a break-up, but perhaps he’s just a good actor.” She snorted. “That would explain why Groose knows him.” 

“And the scarf?”, Impa inquired. 

“He... he saw me shivering, and he...”, she trailed off to blink the tears away. “He gave it to me.” She paused sniffing but refused to cry. “It hit me that it was him when he had already left. I tried to find him, but he was gone up in smoke.” She laughed a bitter, strangled noise. “Of course, he had done his job.” 

“Zelda.” Impa laid her hand on her knee. “Please let Rupin’s _idea_ aside for one moment.” 

Zelda looked at her with wide eyes, unwilling to cling to the hope that was stubbornly dwelling in her chest. “You don’t believe Groose convinced him to do that?” 

“No.”

Her answer was so simple that it left no room for arguing. “I was an adult when we met, remember? You were both horrible liars, no way he is an actor now.” 

“H-horrible liars? You mean, you knew that I was sneaking out?” 

Impa huffed a dry laugh. “Of course, I knew. I’m a fully trained Shiekah and the head of your security.” 

“Oh. That... Why didn’t you stop me?” 

Impa’s gaze softened again. “Because he was doing you _good_. He might be the only one in your life who saw you and not the princess. And that’s why I don’t believe that story for a second. The part about Link, I mean.” 

Zelda drew up her knees to place the balls of her feet on the edge of her chair and hugged them. 

“But he isn’t on the guest list.” 

The older woman in front of her shrugged. “Just one member of each company was registered. He could have accompanied someone.” 

“And the paparazzo?” 

“Had a lucky day. Groose wasn’t in a hurry, he could have gotten pictures like that any other day, too. You didn’t even kiss.” 

“Hm.” 

Impa leaned forward. “Zelda, come on. How many attempts have we made to find him? Three, four? And now we have a realistic chance, you are backtracking because Rupin gives you funny ideas?” 

“Four”, she sighed. “Well, five, I made one on my own.” 

It hadn’t been too difficult to find his name and the address where he had lived with his parents, but after that, they lost track of him. She had found out on her own that his parents died shortly after that summer, but all the orphanages she had called, divulge nothing. Not even playing the princess card convinced them to give up their vow of silence and without his current last name, it had been impossible to track him down. 

“Alright. We split the list in two and we call everybody and ask after him. If that doesn’t work out, we check the taxicab companies and the hotels.” 

“I’m not convinced. What if Rupin is right? Link didn’t contact me for years.” 

Impa groaned impatiently. “Well, if he is a jerk, you just move on. If he’s not, Rupin will get his royal marriage.” 

She sucked a sharp breath in. “We are talking about being _friends_!” 

Impa pointed at another picture in the newspaper, before she added smirking: “Sure. Perhaps you should stop looking at his butt in public then.” 

“Impa!” 


	3. Chapter 3

Three days. Pipit had given him three days until he expected him back at work. After he had stormed off from his goodbye with Zelda, he had run directly into Pipit. Barely able to speak at all, he had managed something around the lines: ‘I found her. She’s the princess.’ Pipit had blinked at him in disbelief, but realizing that he had been deadly serious, the only word leaving him was: ‘Shit.’ That was all that had been spoken between them for the first three days. 

Yesterday, Pipit had shown up at his apartment like every evening, had told him that he couldn’t grieve forever and had encouraged him to work as a distraction, so here he was, staring holes at his monitor, his stomach sour from too much coffee and his eyes swollen from too much crying. The meal, Karane had brought them stood untouched next to him, even her concerned and severe telling-off couldn’t convince him to eat. 

It was a tradition that the three spent their lunch breaks together, and he didn’t miss that his friends forgo kissing and holding hands in front of him. It was a kind gesture, and he was thankful, but the casual familiarity between them that came with the years stabbed him much more than a plain kiss ever could. 

He wasn’t a stranger to break-ups or a heart-break in general, but finding and losing Zelda in one breath had pulled the rug out from under him. As long as he could remember, thoughts about her accompanied him, sometimes more, sometimes less, and now he had to force himself to stop, no matter what. He had to – not giving her up would slowly poison him, so much was sure. 

Pipit answered a phone call and closed the door of his office after a while. That was odd. Link frowned in the direction of the closed door and hesitantly, he opened the window of his browser again. If Pipit was busy, he could as well look at the pictures again, just… just once more. He knew he shouldn’t. Moving on didn’t exactly mean to stare at the pictures of that fateful evening, just to see her face, just to see them together. If he squeezed his eyes shut, he could still imagine her touch on his back, but it was getting harder from day to day. 

Of course, he was sorry for the photos and the uproar they had caused in the first place. He had never meant to cause Zelda trouble. The palace had issued a press release, where Zelda had announced that he had been one of the guests of the Gala and that the pictures just showed a polite chance encounter between strangers and nothing more. 

Reading the note had caused a new wave of nausea in his guts, although he was painfully aware that she didn’t recognize him. It proved to be much more difficult than he had liked to stomp on every single spark of hope, especially with the fuzz her fiancé was making about the incident. But he knew already how it would end – things like that were courteous under celebrities. Now he was playing the betrayed fiancé, but then there would be a big conciliation geared towards the media peaking in a royal marriage, and from then on, there would be pictures of Zelda’s flat belly with the headline ‘twins!’ every week. 

Hastily, he shut the pictures down, when he heard Pipit reopen his office door. His friend seemed to wrestle with himself about something before he sat down on the edge of Link’s desk. 

“Link, do you… do you think you can do a meeting? I would go by myself, but I promised my Mom that we would be there for her birthday and you know how she is.” 

Link looked at him with hollow eyes. 

“Yeah, of course. I’m… yes, I think I can.” He didn’t think he could. But he had to start somewhere. 

“It’s… it’s in Skyloft.” 

“Skyloft”, echoed Link. 

“I know, I know, but look, I’ll organize everything for you, you just have to show up and make a good impression, ok?” 

Link pressed his palms to his eyes. 

“When?”, he asked without bothering to look at Pipit. 

“Tomorrow afternoon.” 

He would never be ready in less than 24 hours. But he wouldn’t be ok the day after tomorrow or next week, so he could as well go tomorrow. It couldn’t be that bad, right? 

It was worse. Skyloft profited from the warm ocean, so the seasons were all a bit muffled. A late summer day awaited him, the jaunty vibe of the island rolling off him like water from a duck. He almost missed the harsh chill of autumn he had left on the mainland – it had fitted his mood much better. Children were running across the island, shooting targets with their slingshots and when he saw a girl trying to catch a butterfly with her net, he had to sit down on a bench to fight against his uneasy stomach and his wobbly knees. It wasn’t only the memories of Zelda that send him trembling, but of his last summer with his parents, too. He had been so happy here, but in the end, he had been living on borrowed time. 

The green grass with the lovely winding paths, the little homes built directly in the hills, and the gentle murmur of the many waterfalls – time had stood still in Skyloft, and he wished nothing more than to open his hollow chest to let the peaceful atmosphere in.

If only it was that easy. 

He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when his desperation crossed the line to insanity. Perhaps it began, when his feet dragged him to the little pier at the pond out of sheer self-loathing. Or when he closed his eyes and sensed someone’s presence next to him. But surely, when he felt the ghost of Zelda’s touch on his back again. If he concentrated enough, he could even imagine the tips of her hair tickling his skin, as if she was sitting right next to him. Slowly, he opened his eyes and wasn’t even surprised to look at her smile. Skies, he needed help when he got back home. 

“I’m sorry, I have a meeting to attend”, he muttered, not entirely sure if it was a wise idea to talk to the results of his insanity, and began to stand up. 

She caught his hand and dragged him back. “Link, I’m your meeting. Your friend set you up for me.” 

He sat back down and dove his hands in the fresh water of the pond, rubbed his face. Looking back at her frown, he cracked a smile at her. “Wasn’t sure if you are real.” 

She laughed and wiped a water drop off his forehead with her thumb, and he doubted his mental health yet again. 

“I am. Please forgive me for leaving you in the dark. I wanted to see you again, but I wasn’t sure if you would come after what had happened.” She paused and dipped her bare toes in the water. “I am sorry that I didn’t recognize you at first. I… I had a lot on my mind that evening.” 

His light-headiness vanished when he gulped and looked down at his knees. “I am sorry about the pictures.” 

She positioned her feet at the edge of the pier, water dripping from her toes, and hugged herself. “Link, I need to ask you something and I want you to answer honestly. I can deal with the truth.” 

He studied her face in confusion, still a bit dazzled about her sudden appearance, and nodded. “Well, go ahead then.” 

“Did Groose or someone else made you do that? Kissing my hand and all that?” 

“Groose?”, he frowned, “That’s your, your…?” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word with her in his arms reach. 

“Yes, my ex. We have the suspension that he let the paparazzo in to get some compromising photos of me to have a reason to break the engagement up.” 

Link scratched the back of his neck, frowned, scratched his neck again, but the sense of all that escaped him. 

“No. I talked to Pipit and you that evening, that’s all. We are at the gala every year with our company, but I’m sure Pipit told you so much.” He hesitated, unsure if he would overstep with his next question. “But why did he propose to you only minutes before and...?” He gestured helplessly with his hands. 

Zelda’s mouth turned in a smile, which stole his breath away. Skies, was she beautiful when she smiled with her eyes. 

“Hylia bless your innocence, Link.” 

She leaned back and rested her hand next to his so that their pinkies brushed, and he failed to push the hope, which raised in his chest back. “We had been dating for a few months only, and we were on the rocks already. He just wanted to save his face, so that I was at fault.” She grimaced. “Well, and he was lucky enough that I ran into you, I guess.” 

He knew he was staring, but he had trouble processing everything she was telling him. 

“Wait, he proposed for _good press_ and tricked you afterward?” 

She sighed heavily. “Yes.” 

“Wow. That’s incredibly mean.” 

“It is. Don’t let that hear my PR-manager, but I’m kind of happy that the photos solved the problem quickly. At least I don’t have to deal with him anymore.” 

To his dismay, she withdrew her hand and hugged herself again. “What… what about you? I don’t want to be rude, but, well, it’s obvious that you are suffering. Who is crazy enough to reject someone like you?” 

Link shut his mouth and swallowed. Of course, she didn’t know. 

“T-that sounds a bit stupid now, but I didn’t realize that you were the P-princess until last weekend. Well, I was a child, and the only people who knew died shortly after our summer, so, yeah.” He ruffled the hair at his neck. “Uhm, I… I tried to keep my part of the promise.” He turned his hand upwards and opened his fingers so that the scar on his palm was visible. “And Saturday I finally found you, moments before that… that proposal.” 

Now Zelda was the one staring and Link hold his breath. Finally, she raised her own hand and showed the thin line on her palm as well. “This is the sixth attempt to find you. I spent every second of my free time in the last few days by calling the people on the guest list and asking about you.” 

Something bubbled inside him and for the first time in days, he grinned. 

“You are crazy.” 

“And so are you.” 

“That’s different. I found a princess at the end of my rainbow.” 

She laughed and the wonderful sound lifted the leaden weariness of his chest, which had tortured him in the last days. 

“Ok, I’ll give you that.” She tipped her head to the side and smiled. “I would like to hug you, Link.” 

Halfway through opening his arms for her, he paused. “There will be more photos.” 

“Good”, she grinned. “New stuff to stare at night.” Her eyes darted to his ears that had probably turned a lovely shade of pink, and he might fall in love here and now with the way, her smile let her eyes crinkle. “Impa has checked the island. No paparazzi around, I swear.” 

She was soft and warm and everything he had ever dreamed her to be. The tension of her upper body left her with a sigh, and she slacked further in his embrace, while the reality of having her in his arms finally caught up to him. He couldn’t help but squeeze her lightly, hardly able to contain the urge to bury his face in her hair, and she squeezed him back. 

Perhaps it had been the last days full of heartbreak and tears that had implanted a tenacious doubt in his heart, he couldn’t shake off or perhaps he still didn’t trust his mind. He withdrew until he could see the concern at his unexpected movement in her face and whispered: “This is not another goodbye, is it? I mean, you being the Princess and all? I’m the boy next door personified.” 

Her face relaxed in relief. “That got you worried?” She cupped his face and his exhaling breath stuttered a bit. “I’m still your Zelda”, she breathed and before he worried himself too much that he might press a very inappropriate kiss on the corner of her mouth, she smirked and added: “Don’t you think you can get rid of me now that I finally found you.” 

His stomach answered for him with a loud rumble, and they separated chuckling from each other.

“Sorry”, he murmured bashfully. “I might have neglected to eat a bit in the last days.” 

Standing up, he offered her his hand. “Do you care for an early dinner? I would love to catch up a bit and hear about your life.” 

She still held onto him, while she slipped her feet in her ballerinas, and he quashed the disappointing tug in his tummy when she let go again. 

She didn’t move when he attempted to walk towards the bazaar. “Is that a date?” 

The tension in his shoulders was back in a beat and he stopped in his tracks, turning with measured movements. 

“I-if you want it to be one?” 

Her smile was enough to gather the pieces of his heart together, and he had the faint idea that it wouldn’t be long until it was patched and whole again. 

“Yes.” 

“O-ok. I would like that, too.” 

She stepped up to him and slipped her hand into his once more, interlacing their fingers and when she pressed their palms together, he thought that being a fool might not be so bad after all. 


	4. Epilogue

Zelda was mingling with the guests of the charity gala, eyes attentive to her surroundings so that she wouldn’t miss a person who wanted to talk with her. Link had shown her how to do it with a relaxed and friendly face. Melting in without gathering attention and checking the area was one of the skills he had perfected in his security agency. It turned out to be quite useful as a princess, too, but she knew she had a way to go when she didn’t see the bodyguard that tapped her shoulder and requested her on the stage. 

Link ruffled the hair at his neck like always when he was nervous, and she saw only now that he had a single crimson rose in his left hand. His outstretched right hand invited her to join him next to the microphone, and she took it without hesitation, noticing barely, how nervous he must be when he was trembling like that. 

“Hi.” He beamed and a year had done nothing to dampen the butterflies in her belly when he smiled at her like that, especially when he was in evening clothes. Circling the rose in his fingers, he began to speak, half in the microphone, half to her. “Z-zelda, I’m not sure if you are aware of the f-fact that it has been a year now that you turned my life upside down. And, and I enjoyed every second of it.” He chuckled and handed her the flower. “I think this is better in your h-hands, I’m gonna ruin it with my nervousness. I plan to give you one more each year, so you m-might want to stock up on the vases in the castle.” The people who had gathered in front of the stage laughed and someone shouted ‘kiss!’. Link raised his index finger. “We will, b-but I won’t make it that easy.” 

She gasped with the crowd, as he got down on his knee, not sure if she was shocked or thrilled or both. They had talked about marriage in the last weeks, a lot to be honest, but she had hoped for something more personal perhaps? Although it was fitting somehow, since their ‘modern fairy tale’ as the press called it had picked up speed here with a very similar scene. The more she thought about it – wait. He stood again, a small harp in his hands – he must have picked it up from behind him. 

“Eh, what’s that pout about? Were you expecting something else than a duet for the donations?” He grinned at her, and she didn’t miss the mischievous glint in his eyes; he might be nervous to speak in front of a crowd, but he was a natural when it comes to PR and right now, he knew exactly what he was doing. Covering the micro with his hand earned him a scratching noise from the speakers and a groan from the audience while he leaned in to whisper in her ear: “You’ll get your proposal. But not here. Just you and me, ok?” He withdrew and mouthed on the way back: “Soon?” 

She nodded smiling at him, hoping the bubble of happiness in her stomach showed on her face and basked in the way how his face lit up from the upward curve of his mouth to the tiny wrinkles of his eyes as a response. 

“Ok, everybody. Our dear Princess hid it successfully until now, b-but she has a very beautiful singing voice. We won’t let her get away with that any longer, are we?” The people cheered and Zelda only shook her head in amusement. 

“So, I’m going to play the harp and Zelda will sing, but it’s a charity event, you know what that means. Everybody who donates more than 500 rupees is allowed to choose a song.” 

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her closer. 

“Aaaand we are gonna kiss if someone donates 100 rupees, a-aren’t we, Zelda?” 

Someone whistled and Zelda waited until it was quiet enough to continue. 

“1 _50_. I mean, _look_ at him, you can’t expect me to kiss a nobody for 100 rupees.” 

Link raised a hand to his collarbone in a mocking gesture and gasped. 

“A nobody?” 

Then he leaned forward to the micro, hid his mouth from her with his hand, and whispered: “Come on you nobodies out there, show the spoiled lady who’s boss and donate for the children in Hyrule!” 

When the cheers of the crowd died down again, someone pushed his way towards the donation box and the people parted intimidated. The golden rupee thud on the bottom of the box and Impa’s severe face turned into a small, honest smile. “First is on me, second on Rupin.”


End file.
